Marketing your web site – Part 3 – Using Email, e-books, letterhead and magazines

Using Email to market your web site This is a very touchy subject. One that needs to be addressed and that you need to understand. Email marketing falls into three categories. First is simple, you place a signature line in your email program that automatically adds your signature block to each out going email. This signature line identifies your web site and a brief tag line or catch phase. Every time you respond or send an email, your signature advertises your business. No problems with that. However, the next two types of email marketing are very touchy. By now, everyone has heard of SPAM. Your definition may be different from mine and from the governments. However, you look at it, SPAM is unwanted email. Now email marketing requires that we send emails to our potential customers. This can be done either with or without their permission. Sending email without the permission of the recipient put us in a bad light. Often resulting is negative feelings and responses from the recipient. This is bad for business. If you piss off the potential customer, well…. they are no longer a potential customer as they have deleted you email and won’t be visiting your site. You have wasted valuable time and money. So, the only people you will be sending any marketing emails to will be those that have requested information from you or have agreed to receive information from you. This is called permission based email. Where can you find people who are willing to receive your emails? First provide a place on your web site to gather the names and addresses of your visitors. Offer them something in exchange, such as a free publication, or your newsletter, or something else of potential value to them. Let them know when they sign up that you will from time to time be sending them information. Include in the email a means to unsubscribe at any time. As people sign up you are building your email list which you can market to as often as you like. I wouldn’t recommend more than twice a month. There are other web sites that maintain a list of people who want to hear from your.

This permission based method is usually based on a particular subject matter. Such as hobbies, business ideas, child care etc. You can find them on the web by searching for mailing list. Emails are an inexpensive way to keep in touch with your customers. If you have a brick and motor store, try to get the email addresses of your current customers and add them to the list as well. You will be surprised at how much extra business can come from a personalize email about a special you are offering for their support over the last year etc. Using E-books to market your web site What can your own E-zine or E-book do for your business or web site? How about: Sell more products or services. An e-zine/e-book can increase your credibility, making it easier to sell your product or service as well as those of others in which you have a stake. Attract more affiliates to help sell your products or services. This form of advertising is viral in it approach. E-zines and e-books get passed from person to person. Creating more interest which makes people want to jump on board and become part of that success. Establish yourself as an expert in your field, creating more ‘believability’ and trust. People don’t buy from strangers. With you e-zine or e-book you become better known to them. When the time comes they need or want your products or services, there’s no question who they’ll buy them from — YOU! Show your visitors and clients everything you can really do for them, maximizing your sales efforts. Build a base of customers who are ready to hire you, buy from you, evangelize for you and create more fans for you. Effortlessly spread the word about your business via «viral marketing.» Create new revenue streams from selling ad space and recommending other products that you’re an affiliate of. See our affiliate page for more information.

Become a recognized publisher. Have others writing your articles, advertisers paying for exposure in your publication. Here is an IMPORTANT point, capture the email addresses of your Web site visitors, gaining permission to market to them over and over again and multiple chances closing the sale. Not to mention the sales of other products or services. Keep in touch with all of your customers, prospects, and associates — on a regular basis. Simple tips for creating e-zines and e-books Package your knowledge on a regular basis into tips and articles that can be reprinted in other publications for tons of additional exposure and traffic. There are thousands of ebooks and e-zines in publication today. Most are specialized in a particular segment of the web or interest. When you find an ebook/ezine that reaches the people that may be interested in your product or service. Contact them to see if they take outside articles. If they do, send them an article or two that you may have written. Include information on your business and its web site If they publish your article, your name and web site will be listed. This is a great way of getting free advertising and traffic to your site. Another way to get articles for your e-books is to find someone to write them for you.

Much like the process above but in this case you are the one publishing the material.

Use your web site, chat rooms, forums etc to advertise for articles. Save thousands of dollars printing and postage by producing your newsletter online instead of printing it. Adobe Writer is a good program for your e-books and any email program can be used for e-zines. We have several resources in our download area on ebook. One of the better programs for creating ebooks is Deadeasy although not free it makes a great tool for creating ebooks. If you would like more information on Deadeasy, click here. Using Letterhead to market your web site Every business uses paper to correspond with its customers, vendors and other businesses. Many small businesses and home based businesses today use the computer a and a word processor to generate this correspondence whether it be printed or electronic we all do. So how can we use this correspondence to market our business? Simple, create a letterhead template and make it your default document when ever you create a business related correspondence. In your letterhead template make sure you have your website address and you company slogan (if you have one) prominently displayed. I have even seem some letterhead lately that simply has the website address listed and no physical address as many companies are Internet based or figure that you will have access to the Internet and can visit their site to look up the street address if needed.

This is actually a clever move, in that it get you to visit the site, which is what our marketing is trying to do to begin with. Using Magazines to market your web site Those articles that you wrote or had written for your business can also be sent to magazine and newspapers for publication. Each one that is printed is free advertisement for your business that last for years. Just think how many issues are passed around from person to person before they end up in the trash. I saw several magazines at the Laundromat that were from 1996-1998 that people were still reading. You can do a search on the web for publications in your area of expertise. Visit their web sites and find the editors email address. Be sure to find out the policy for submitting an article for publication and follow it. Some editors don’t like it when the mail box is full of unsolicited articles that do not conform to their policies and will just trash the email instead of replying to you.